Experimental investigation of altermagnetic order in Cr-doped FeSb2

Abstract

Altermagnets are a class of materials with compensated magnetic moments, in which spin sublattices are related by specific rotational symmetries other than inversion or translation. This allows time-reversal symmetry to be broken without a net magnetization. Cr-doped FeSb2 has been theoretically proposed as a candidate d-wave altermagnetic system, yet its magnetic ground state has remained unresolved. Here, we synthesize single crystals of Fe1-xCrxSb2 and investigate their electrical transport and magnetic properties, with a focus on Fe0.85Cr0.15Sb2. Magnetization measurements suggest spin-compensated ordering below ~3.5 K, where magnetic moments align along the crystallographic b-direction. Transport measurements reveal a crossover from large positive to negative magnetoresistance, while an anomalous Hall response emerges below 5 K, indicating time-reversal symmetry breaking. Muon spin relaxation measurements confirm that the magnetic ordering below 3.5 K is bulk in nature. The absence of coherent oscillations in zero-field μSR spectra and of magnetic Bragg intensity in single-crystal neutron diffraction establishes that the magnetically ordered state is short-range or disordered, rather than collinear altermagnetic order. These results demonstrate that Cr-doping alone breaks time-reversal symmetry without stabilizing long-range altermagnetic order in FeSb2.